James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 5:15-18

¹⁵ Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. ¹⁷ Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! ¹⁸ Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.å

The first step is corporate confession and the second step is:

2. Corporate prayer – Vs 16-18

Once again, this is a corporate command, its for the whole body. When we have someone in our midst who is going through affliction, we are called to pray for them. But how do we pray for them? Well, James is a pastor gives us a powerful picture of prayer here. He gives us the illustration of Elijah from 1 Kings 17-18. Our verse in James describes Elijah as being human as we are. Not only did James church need that reminder but so do we. Because while they didn’t have comic book heroes like Superman and Batman back in James’ day. What they did do was to make heroes of the men of the Old Testament. The problem with that is that they tended to look at them the same way we look a Superman. They were mythical, superhuman people. But James refutes that rational. He says that Elijah was just an ordinary man with an extraordinary God and an extraordinary burden, His call from God. He was a prophet in Israel during a time when it seemed as if everybody else in the nation worshipped other gods. Including King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. So, in the face of that kind of affliction, what did Elijah do? He prayed. It’s here that James reveals several powerful principles when it comes to prayer: 

1. Passion of the Petitioner – “The earnest prayer”

Elijah was so passionate for God’s people to turn back to God that he was willing to pray a prayer that would cause him to have to personally suffer. He didn’t pray that everything would go well for Israel in order for them to turn to God. He prayed that it would stop raining, and it did for three and ½ years. But as you go through 1 Kings 17-18, you will discover that the lack of rain also brought hardship for Elijah. He had to get food from ravens and water from the trickle of a stream. When that ran out, he had to depend on the faith of a poor widow woman. Elijah’s effectual fervent prayer didn’t make life easy for him. That’s not what it was designed for. It was designed for the benefit of the whole nation. It was designed to show God’s power and glory to Israel so they would turn back to Him. And, for an ever so brief moment in their history, that’s what happened. You know the story of what happened on Mount Carmel. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to see whose God could consume the offering. The false prophets of Baal spent all day crying out to their gods, even cutting themselves so that their blood poured out. But there was no response. Then it was Elijah’s turn. He rebuilt the altar of the Lord and placed the sacrifice on it according to the requirements of the Law. And then he soaked it with water three times. This was not a waste of water in a time of drought but an offering of what was precious and rare. And then he prayed. This is his prayer in 1 Kings 18:36-37: “Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. ³⁷ O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” A simple, two sentence prayer. And look what happened in verses 38-39: “Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! ³⁹ And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”God was glorified. What about you, is that the passionate cry of your prayer life, God be Glorified, it was Jesus prayer in John 17. Elijah prayed, not for his personal comfort. He prayed that God would be magnified, no matter what. And guess what? God was magnified. Unlike the prosperity preacher Elijah had a passion for holiness over happiness. He was willing to be homeless so others would know God’s holiness.